Empathy
by Pirate Lapis
Summary: The story of how Pink Diamond loses her identity, and how she becomes a hero instead.
1. Emerge

A/N: Pink knows these words now but not then. She's just translating her observances into something you, the reader, can understand. She also did that with the primeval dialogue.

I'm also trying to make the least assumptions as possible, so sorry if the other diamonds appear flat.

At first, as Pink's eyes were forming, all was light. As her matter started solidifying, she soon felt the walls of her hole pressing close on her body. It felt comforting and constricting at the same time.

But when Pink was done coming into being, it went dark. This frightened her slightly, and so she closed her eyes, wanting the light to come back. Eventually, it did. But it didn't come from her. It came from outside her hole. It seemed interesting, though. So she stepped out.

And there was beauty. Above her head was a tall mountain, perhaps a thousand times her height. A few steps ahead of her was some water. She walked over to it. It was completely still, with only two lily pads upon the surface.

Pink leaned down, and was shocked to see that it now reflected pink, instead of of blue and grey. The thing that was new moved when she moved, but when she tried to touch it all it seemed to do was cut itself in circles and get her a new sensation.

She tried to wipe it off on the ground, but all it seems to do was was get dirt on her finger, somewhat getting rid of the sensation. She then wiped it against a leaf, and was satisfied to see that most of mud came off, as did the rest of the sensation. (Wetness)

A noise whistled through her ears, lifting her shoulder length ringlets off her neck. It was pleasant, but soon gone.

A thought suddenly struck her. She was Diamond. She didn't know where it came from, but that was her. She laid on her back, watching the wind stir the otherwise motion- and soundless forest. It felt good to know who she was.

Then, near dark, she heard another noise. The sound of something else moving. And it wasn't her.

Pink looked around, and saw another. It didn't look exactly like her, a different color, but it had the same amount of appendages and such as she did. Still, she kept back.

The thing waved its left arm at her. It pointed at her belly, where her gem was, and then at itself where it's own gem was. She now saw. This thing, it was like her!

The thing pointed at itself and said, "Diamond".

But that was her! She quickly copied the motion, and made gestures at herself. The thing seemed to realize what she was saying, and then It pointed to itself. It said "White". Then it pointed at her. "Pink". And that was the start of her life.

Over the next few days, she met two other things, Diamonds,like her. One was named Yellow, and another was Blue. The names were so blatant, but they worked well currently.

They all built shelter together, because sometimes the wind was annoying, and their emerging holes were all on different sides of the mountain, so they couldn't all be sheltered together. Blue had emerged first, walking around for 3 days before she stumbled upon White emerging. The pair of them walked around for another couple of days when they saw Yellow running around. And then they found her, Pink.

Eventually, the shelter was built into a comfortable living space. Yellow went out daily to chop wood for the shelter and fire. White stayed home and cleaned and improved it awhile the others were about their business. Blue and Pink helped do this initially, but then Yellow's discovery was made.

Yellow was at first in charge of chopping the trees down. She had found a large stick and a reed and a sharp rock, and had tied the rock and stick together. When you hit stuff with it, it eventually fell over or splintered into more manageable pieces.

One day, Yellow took her out to chop with her, because the wind seemed to be getting colder and they needed more fuel for what Blue called Fire. It seemed to warm their shelter, and it was fun to watch.

Yellow was showing her how to chop, when suddenly a big part of the rock chipped off.

"That's the third time it's broke this week!" Yellow exclaimed angrily. She threw it to the forest floor.

Pink, not sure how to calm her, said, "Why don't you make a new one?"

"Because I'm angry. I just... Want to chop stuff!" A big glow came from Yellow's gem, and suddenly, a better, improved version of the ax came into being.

Its blade was sharp, with a design of triangles upon the shorter part of the blade. Sort of rounded, but it was on a long handle.

"Go get the others. They may want to see this."

And from then on, when Blue saw the sophisticated ax, she was dedicated to finding all the limits and powers of gems.

Pink was a different story. Blue had her own little shed to work in, hitting herself and her gem and occasionally shouting of success. Sometimes she needed Pink to come heal her (her healing powers was their second discovery), because she crack her gem, but otherwise she kept to herself. Her biggest discovery was if you hit anywhere except the gem hard enough, they would poof and retreat into their gem.

Yellow was off gleefully cutting down trees with her new ax. Only her and White were at home anymore, and White liked to spend a lot of time by herself when they were done cleaning. It was extremely boring.

One day, when Pink had gotten done sweeping that day., she went over to see Blue. Occasionally she likes to test the others to see if they could do what she can.

But Blue was busy. "Why don't you go find someone else to bother?!" Apparently she had been busy trying to pull out an ax of her own.

That's a silly question, Pink thought. "But there is no one else!"

"How do you know? Go away and look, or something!" Blue then shut the door in her face.

'Is there others? Is there more to life than the 4 of us?' Pink wondered.

So she went back the house. She made a deal with White: if she did White's chores for the next month, she would be allowed to go the next month. Pink wasn't sure why she asked permission, but it sort of was just... Expected. White agreed, and it was a plan.

So Pink swept, dusted, and maintained the whole house for a month. Then, she was ready.

Pink set off. All of her sisters waved as she left, and then the distance between them became long, and so she looked forward.

Spinning and twirling, she wandered through vales, hills, meadows, and saw lots of different plants and beautiful sunsets and rises. But no one was there. Nothing else moved, besides wind and rivers, except for her. It sort of disturbed Pink.

Then she started to wonder whether this was all real. One time she had thought she had seen Yellow sneaking up on her, but when Pink turned around no one was there. But it was worse.

Loneliness was horrible. And so she started talking to herself, in the rhythm of her plodding feet. Soon she had formulated something she called a song, and it helped ease the desolateness of her quest.

So when Pink started hearing something that wasn't her, or a river, or the wind, she had thought that maybe it was time to turn back. She had gone too far, and should get Yellow to come with her. Yellow made the dark seem smaller somehow, and less threatening sometimes. Maybe she could scare this weirdness in her brain away.

But then she saw movement. Pink was starting to think that maybe she couldn't trust her senses anymore, but she ran after it anyway.

It took her into a jungle, and up a large tree. It took her a while longer to climb up to the top. By the time she was up, it was gone.

Or so she thought. Pink was making her way back across what she called the Stonies, a largish mountain range that was only a few days journey from that jungle. But then she saw it. It was following her, from a distance. She only noticed it because the wind changed and she smelled something different than what was around her.

She whirled around, and an reddish streak quickly moved behind a tree.

"Hi, I won't hurt you. My name is Pi-"Pink tried to say, then felt her words fall flat when she realized that it probably wouldn't be able to understand her.

Every time Pink tried to get close to it, the thing moved away. Eventually, she gave up and laid on the ground, slightly winded. Out of anger and frustration, she started humming, a sort of singing with out formulating words. She had been humming for several minutes when the thing started humming too.

It slowly crept closer to her horizontal body, and laid down near her. It kept on scooting closer to her, until Pink knew that they had reached a pivotal moment.

If Pink reached out now, she may scare it away. But if she didn't, it might go away all the same. So, tentatively, she reached out the the smaller thing. The motion scared it, but it soon came back to her. Eventually, it laid beside her. Pink introduced herself as Pink Diamond. After figuring out how pink did that, she said Carnelian. She soon followed Pink all over.

Pink eventually, after a few days or so of teaching Carnelian to talk, heard her story. She had been born alone, and when she heard Pink, she got excited and started following her. Her gem was on her tail, a strange appendage that seemed to help her keep her balance but also seemed to be a bit bothersome.

One time Pink asked Carnelian why she wasn't named Diamond. She couldn't give an answer.

They eventually reached the house. The other diamonds were astonished to see such a gem. Blue was surprised by the tail, and immediatly asked her to explain it.

White offered her a chair, a new invention they had made while Pink was away. It looked like Yellow had simply just gotten a thick log and kept half of a taller part, but she didn't complain. It helped her dress not get dirty on the ground.

The other diamonds peppered her with questions, a little fast for Carnelian understanding, as she had only been speaking for a few days. After the night passed, Pink looked over at her friend and realized that her sisters were overwhelming the poor thing.

She stood up, and said " My fellow Diamonds, I think what we need to do now is get her a room of her own, for some privacy. You all remember what your first few days were like. She can have my room while me and Yellow create her own."

The others, realizing their mistakes, agreed. Yellow apologized by patting poor Carnelian on the back. Unfortunatly, she didn't check her strength. That was always one of Yellow's flaws. She knocked Carnelian over, so hard that she slid into the wall and created a sort of dent in the log there, and also in the process poofing herself.

Everyone stared at Yellow. She shrugged. "If she wasn't so weak, that wouldn't have happened. If I had done that to you, you guys would've only reacted a little! I guess she isn't as strong or advanced as we are."

Pink thought about this. It made sense. After all, if she wasn't a Diamond, it was reasonable to assume that Tiger wasn't as good as them. If one isn't strong, then they aren't anything.

Hey guys! So this is my origin story for Rose Quartz, in the Universe of United I Stand, the best darn Rupphire story ever written, by Cavedwellers. This is sort of fanfiction for fanfiction.

Just to make things clear, Pink Diamond= Rose Quartz, in the past. And this is the story of how she gets over her prejudice and has the Rebellion


	2. Eye-Opener

Pink looked at her calendar. It was the millionth anniversary of her emergence, and what she had to do was paperwork. Of course, emergences were nothing to celebrate (Why be happy about the day that you knew the least about the world?), but sometimes she wished that there was no budgets to sort, no broken injectors to have to fill out repair forms for, and no daily checks on how many gems they made.

The Kindergarten on Mortmire, the planet she was on, was yielding only 5% of gems a year they were 500 years ago. The swamps were already nearly dry, and those beautiful little peat flowers that came for a few months every year had been extinct for fifty. It sort of made Pink sad.

But they needed every drop of life they could get. That war that Yellow had picked a few ten thousand years ago drained their resources quickly. Thank goodness Yellow had finally learned some diplomacy, or else there would be even more problems.

Luckily, in this sector of the universe, there was hope. Scientists had discovered a new kind of mineral, that, when kindergartened, usually produced large, bulgy gems who had a good amount of battle lust and were reasonably strong. They were fairly to easy to kindergarten, unlike corundums, which were hard to artificially reproduce, and often emerged far from anywhere reasonable. Corundums also tended to be born near their natural enemies, and that would usually result in fatalities.

But since there was no more real use of Mortmire, she had sent out scouts who were to return by the next 100 years to look for planets with life.

"I need a break" Pink said to herself out loud. She tossed her papers aside dramatically. She then pushed her clean-up button, knowing that someone would already have it back on her desk by the time she got back.

She strode out of her room, and motioned to her guards, a Ruby and a Topaz. Pink didn't really need protection, as she was harder than all of them and was the second ever gem to learn martial arts. Besides, the only people who probably could kill her are light years away. It was just sort of a thing to show her importance. Or so said White.

She was about to step out of the little room that held her Room's portal, when she decided to go out alone. The guards were told, and they were sent on break.

Concentrating, Pink shrunk herself to about the size of a pebble, gave herself some wings, and flew out. Sometimes she liked to be able to see her subjects without the usual pomp.

She studied her usual. She called them her secret characters, gems whose lives interested her.

There was a Hessonite with her gem on her chin, who for some reason wore nothing but a short top that covered half of her chest, a short skirt, and shoes that made her look so much taller than what she really was it made Pink wonder why she didn't just form herself taller.

Then there was the Granite with her gem on her front neck, a weathered old trainer who commanded enough respect to get Newly-emerged Amethysts and Jaspers to not kill each other. She really should of been under Yellow's jurisdiction, but the Granite always passed up promotions and always preferred to stay with the early devolopement unit, which basically taught gems about the empire and how to use their gems. Pink could tell she was an old softy under her literally rough exterior.

The last was a Tiger Eye, a Quartz who managed to be able to stay because of a special power of hers: she was able find gems by their scent. Occasionally the swamp sucked a gem under the bog, and they would get stuck there until someone found them. But that wasn't why she interested Pink so much: she also had a tail.

This made Punk think to happier times, when it was just her and her duster diamonds and Carnelian. They hadn't spoken recently, and last Pink had heard of her, she was governing the first conquered planet of the Diamond Authority, Pyrmont. That was 100,000 years ago. A position like that was usually given to gems of higher moh's, but she received some special favors, as she was the fiery non-diamond.

Hearing about their daily lives sometimes made Pink say that she had no one to talk to. They had friends, enemies, and little conflicts that were so big to them that it was cute. She had her sisters, of course, but actual live video chats were draining from this far away, and they were only able to do it once a day due to each of their schedules.

Pink was thinking of getting a secretary. After all, not all of the papers needed her seal. She mused on this as the Tiger Eye was chatting about the latest drama, her winning a wrestling match against a Smokey Quartz.

But it was time to head back. However interesting other gems were, there was more paperwork. She flew back to the little room. But then something stopped her.

A large gem, with her gem under her pects, close to Pink's placement, said "When we get to the new planet, I think we need to start sabotaging. You know, unscrewing the injector caps a little, maybe plant a few closer to the ground than quartzes like, that sort of thing.

Pink tried to turn around, but then a wind flew by, almost placing her in the steps of the Hessonite she had been observing earlier. Luckily she dodged in time, but by the time she was back in the air, the large gem and the people she was talking to were gone. She didn't even catch their names.

Still, this was something that needed to be reported. A revolution hasn't happened... Well... Ever. The closest thing was 40,000 years ago, when a Brookite had gone crazy, claimed she was the creator of the universe, and had started throwing grenades everywhere in the lab she was working in. She had a high pressure job, so that's why the detectives concluded she would commit a mass suicide/homicide.

It was called a suicide/homicide because Pink was the only gem who could heal back then. She didn't get to save all the cracked gems in time, and the ones who were close got completely shattered or even powdered.

As Pink thought about this, she flew into the office and changed back. She marched into her room, and filled out some more paperwork, waiting for the designated call time. When the clock struck midnight, her wailing stone and mirror turned on. Scientists were still working on the technology on combing the two.

3 faces stared out at her, all in one segment. Sometimes the first three diamonds would find enough time in their schedules to warp over. Pink never got to do that.

"Hello, dear Pink. We have about 6 things on the agenda. Do you have any?" White said. Blue and Yellow nodded hello.

"Hello, White, Blue, Yellow. Yes, I do, but this is a somewhat large issue, so how about we work through yours first?"

They all agreed, and so they began.

White talked about legalizing couples ability to raise new emergences a few at a time, instead of institutions. Pink tho it this was a lovely idea, but Yellow and Blue shot it down, because they needed quickly built teams, not individually taught gems. White could not vote upon the subject, because she had broached it, and so it was 2-1.

Blue mentioned that they had just made a break-through in warpology. Warp pads were now able to warp multiple gems at a time, though they were still not big enough to send even the smallest ship through.

Yellow proclaimed a victory in the Betelgeuse system, though it was hard fought and many of the Rose Quartzes had gotten crushed before they were able to heal soldiers. They sustained heavy losses, but the enemy had far worse.

Blue then spoke about the height of gems. Pink perked up at this, because she was the shortest of the Diamonds and Yellow, a few hundred thousand years ago, used to make a little fun of her. Apparently, the closer your hole was to sea level, the shorter you were.

White then offered the idea of sending a Pearl to Pink. They mentioned that their ability to prioritize and sort was quite astonishing when it came to their little thought activity. Pink agreed to the idea, as it was something she had been thinking of asking.

Yellow then mentioned that she really appreciated the Cairngorms, or smoky quartzes, as their ability to calm the bees (what they called the enemy, large yellow flying creatures with drills for hands) with their smoking nostrils really helped in the battle fields. She hoped that Pink could produce more, along with some Roses, because of their recent shortage. Pink agreed.

Blue then said speaking of Quartzes, she has tested each different type of Quartz on aggressiveness levels. Going in forward order, Rose, Citrine, Amethyst, Smoky, and Jasper were the most aggressive quartzes. Apparently, though, Roses had the farthest breaking point of insanity, but when they did go insane they were the worst.

Pink sighed at this information. She really wanted to tell her own information. She remembered the day she had helped Blue develop the method. They had been testing extremely defective talcs (it was a huge secret- unit members who fought guards and refused to work got 'reassigned' to Unit 7, or rather, Blue's labs. Talcs, back then, were the easiest to get.) who had their gems on their fingers, sides of their bodies, or on toes. They were the lest valuable.

Yellow had asked for a way to get gems to go insane, just in case it was thought to be an easier way to get information out of them. So, after many trials, Pink had found a way to definitely make them go insane.

You put them in a white, lit up cell, with a door that looks exactly like the wall. Make sure no actual sun can get in, not solar lamps. Attach a small hammer to a band that goes around the area of their gem.

The hammer is there to tap their gem every minute, hard enough to make a ringing sound but soft enough not to damage it.

The gem will first probably sit in a corner. Then they will start shaking every time the sharp, clear note of it echoes through the room. They will then try ripping it off. Unfortunately, it is always made of a higher moh's mineral then them. (No diamond has needed it yet) the gem in them start trying to shapeshift it off. Unfortunately for them, they will no longer have the energy to do so by then.

That's when they start going on a rampage, raving about the horridness of their oligarchy, slashing the walls with their weapons.

Afterwards, they'd start pleading. And then finally, they mentally break.

They tell what the diamonds want to know. They then showed their maximum aggressiveness. It literally took four gypsums to restrain 1 crazed soapstone. All the Diamond were thankful that they didn't have to do so with a corundum yet.

Pink realized Blue was done lecturing. All three of the other Diamonds were looking expectedly.

"Ah-hem. We have a rebellion." This drew some blank faces, namely White and Yellow's. "You know, when subjects are discontent with the government and decide to overthrow it."

White's eyebrows went up so high they seemed to tech her hairline. Yellow grinned. Blue just huffed.

Everyone then looked in extra surprise at her. "Come on. I calculated this would happen!"

Yellow rolled her eyes and White went back to the task at hand. "What do you know?"

Pink looked down at her feet. "Not much. They're in their early stages and one of them was green. What should we do?"

They all thought hard about this for a few minutes. Yellow then finally suggested that they send in an infiltrator. Blue and Pink agreed to it, but White then brought up a valid point: What if she tried to then betray them?

This then brought on some more furious thinking. White then finally suggested that they'd bring in a pink gem, have it sometimes impersonate Pink, and have Pink infiltrate and then crush the gems responsible.

This was an idea that was agreed to by all four of them, though Pink was not sure of the idea. She hadn't actually had a real conversation with anyone besides a diamond since 800,000 years ago, when Yellow had conquered all of Homeworld. Pink had long since stopped exploring, but they needed her to go as a representative to talk with many of the gems.

Breaking her out of her reverie, Yellow said she could spare a Rose Quartz from the battle they do recently had. While she needed all the Roses she could get, this Rose was one of the survivors and deserved to be off duty. Besides, she had Pink's exact gem placement.

"That's a good idea." Pink replied, and so it was set. She didn't really like the idea, though. It felt as though it had been decided for her. After exchanging the usual wish-wells and whatnot, Pink snapped off the communicators.

Next week, when the Rose Quartz arrived, her mission would start.

Pink sighed. Shuffling her papers, she sent in an order for new rose quartzes, and got back to work.

 **Hey guys! What do you think? I'd like to know. Have you checked out United I stand? Just in case you cannot find it, it is written by Cavedwellers. Please critique on my writing, if you feel like it, as any of it would be greatly appreciated. Please excuse any grammatical and spelling mistakes.**

 **Thank you (especially if you favorited), and have a great day!**

 **To Guest: Thank you. I can try. She probably wouldn't be able to be a big character, and she can't be a fusion partner, because Garnet is pretty much the only 'perma-fusion' in the United I Stand Universe. But I don't see why she shouldn't be, like, plain old partners. I'll try to work her in next chapter. What would you like her partner to be? Review again and we'll try to work out something. Also, if you are comfortable with it, please make a Reviewer name, so I don't confuse you with other guests.**

 **P.S. A Pet Peeve of mine is when I can't figure out the average update time, you know, how long does it take for the story to usually be updated. So each chapter I'll post the dates. And just to be clear, I'm probably not going to update every 5 days. Usually between 5 days and 2 weeks.**

 **October 21, 2015**

 **October 26, 2015**


	3. Eliminate (re-submitted)

**A/N: Hi!**

 **Deathbright: Thank you! I'm trying to make them all sister figures. Like White is motherly, Yellow is the protector, and Blue is the Nerdy sister. I'm afraid they probably differ than what is canon though. I mean, I don't know for sure, but I'm sort of portraying Yellow differently than what the extended intro seemed to make her seem like. But anyway, Pink is sort of the little sister who gets left behind to play by herself a lot.**

 **And yeah. I was thinking as Pink starts to understand other gems, she will lose her (slightly) better-than-thou part of her personality and get more understanding of the the play on words AssUMe. (look it up on Uncyclopedia if you don't know it.)**

 **Xx-The-all-seeing-eye-xX: Thank you! I am planning some RosexPearl. Unfortunatly for your hopes about Lapidot, I will not be doing any really modern stories. This will all take place thousands to a few hundred years before Steven and the existence of Peridot. Maybe you should write some of your own. Maybe one where Lapis lets Peridot see her wings?**

 **Thank you all for the favs, follows, and reviews, And just for simply reading, of course. Please remember, any critique's are greatly appreciated, and I hope you enjoy this story!**

* * *

It was finally a week later. Pink was fidgeting with her hair, pulling it from her pulled back position on her head. Each ringlet was like a upside down step on her head. The bottom most ringlet reached her shoulders while her uppermost went the farthest out. She realized that the lapis lazulis had often copied her style, only with straight hair. She laughed a loud. Sometimes it surprised her the things she didn't notice.

The topaz and Ruby who were guarding her gave each other nearly imperceptible weirded out smiles. Pink liked to watch them watch her. It was probably the only real reactions of her she ever saw, besides from the other diamonds.

A flash of light re-directed her gaze back to the warp pad, reminding her to perfect her posture again and to stop fidgeting. Ever since having having that etiquette talk with White, Yellow had been a stickler for the public image.

And she was escorting the Rose Quartz personally.

Pink shooed the Ruby and the Topaz out. The least amount of people that knew about this, the better. They quickly complied.

First, an emerald, then an emery stepped out. Then Yellow, and then the Rose.

The rose already did look a lot like her. Her curled pink ringlets were down to the small of her back, though, and her dress was tiered differently, like layers instead of a light overdress split in the middle over a darker underdress. And her hole, to show the gem on her belly, was a circle instead of a diamond shape.

Despite these small differences of style, they looked mostly the same. It was shocking, really. Both had a squarish face, ringlets, had bare feet, their gems on their stomachs, and hat full lips and upturned noses. One thing stood out, however: the rose quartz's eyes looked slightly haunted.

Pink thought about what she had been through. Having all gems, all her kindergarten-mates, people she'd spent her whole life with, killed.

When Pink had been first exploring, she had first come across the moon, where her first artificial kindergarten had been set up. There was many rubies. This was after they decided to stop letting Corundums form naturally. Too dangerous, and anyway there wasn't even enough of them, even the rubies.

But after that was their first discovery of other intelligent life. The Bees planet. There had been a small kindergarten set up there. It only produced sapphires, but it was soon destroyed. Yellow, of course, had fired up hostilities between the two planets.

Pink had once, sort of, been in the Rose's situation, on the Bees' first raid against the Kindergarten. Only a small amount of Sapphires had been able to ship out. Just as soon as it left, the bees wiped everyone out, except her. The only difference was that she hadn't really known anyone. It was still pretty bad. She had cried a few times.

Yellow came over and hugged Pink. "Hello, dear sister. How are you?"

Pink smiled, saying "Pretty good. You?"

Yellow grinned, and Pink took this as a yes. "We finally captured a Bee alive. "

Pink knew this was great news, so she asked Yellow for details. After several minutes of excited conversation, Yellow changed the subject to the rose quartz standing politely in the corner. Her expression, however, was not quite matching her posture. She was looking around the room, with slight distaste in her eyes.

Yellow looked at the clock, exclaimed a little in surprise, and told Pink goodbye, saying they'll talk more later at the midnight meeting, as usual.

"Bye, I love you!" Pink said as Yellow warped away with her guards.

"Bye, Pink. See you later!" After Yellow was fully gone (The warp pads were somewhat slow. Blue promised to have them quicken by next century.) Pink turned towards the rose quartz.

The rose quartz caught Pink looking at her, and changed her expression from distaste to a somewhat adoring face that was very fake. "Oh, wow! You're Pink Diamond! I'm Rose Quartz ZY-1127, but you can call me Quartzy!"

It wasn't right. A quartz 'allowing' a diamond to do something. Still, Pink plastered on an equally false smile. "Hello, Quartzy. Which Kindergarten did you come from?"

Quartzy continued on in that awful voice. "Oh, I was kindergartened in Cloacina. You know, the first Quartz planet, with all those underground rivers."

"I remember. A bit mucky, but a nice place all the same. Do you know of our plan?" Pink said, changing the subject abruptly. She did not want to spend much time listening to this nasally creature.

"I believe so. But could you explain it to me. I wouldn't want to upset the plan with stupidity."

Pink blinked in surprise. Maybe this loud creature wasn't so stupid after all. At least someone who can listen and follow orders, like any gem under a mohs of 10 should.

"Well, first we shape-shift into each other. That won't be too hard. Then I go out into the populace whenever I need to and you pretend to be me."

"Won't I have to sign papers and other such things? And why can't I just spy around, and you continue your job?" The Rose quartz gave her a slightly sly look, as if she was wondering how such good fortune had befallen upon her, and how she was going to manipulate it further. This look soon passed though, and Pink felt herself lucky to have caught it.

"No, my dear," Pink said as she slightly shuddered in her mind. Quartzes were not known for their mental capacity, but this one's seemed to surpass her expectations in disturbing ways. "I have a stamp with my signature on it for you, and we are going to have manual passwords on our mailing systems so we can access each other's. And as for the switching thing, it is because the other diamonds would rather hear the truth from my mouth, just in case you get swept along in this...rebellion. "

"Oh, okay. Would you like to start now?"

"Sure. You just change into me, and I'll change into you." This task swiftly done, the 'Quartzy' settled down in Pink's chair, and Pink walked out.

Immediately, she was caught up in a throng of gems. Their settlement wasn't a huge building, but rather a town like place, with barracks, labs, offices and training grounds in separate corners of the layout.

They also had a theatre, but it only did shows three a day, and only in the middle, instead of the start, of each period. You could only see it during rec time, but it helped give gems something to talk about.

Pink's favorite was of a silly love story where a emerald and topaz fell in love, and eventually killed themselves over it. It was almost as a ridiculous story as a uby and sapphire loving each other (she had seen many a morbid ending between those two gem types).

And of course she got caught up in rush time. If only she hadn't stopped to explain the plan to that stupid Quartzy! Then she might of escaped this! She thought dramatically.

It was sort of funny that a place with only about 10000 gems got so crowded. Well, funny when you were inside looking out. Occasionally low moh's gems got poofed in the traffic. Now she saw why, personally.

There seemed to be three lanes, one going from work places like the labs and the training grounds to the barracks. This was the slowest one, because after 8 hours of continual, no stop work, even gems got tired. The second was going from the barracks, where they got some alone time, to the rec area.

White and Blue, long ago in a collaborative effort, found out that the average centerlined gem needed about 8 hours of time to themselves, unless in a relationship (partners didn't count) and 8 hours socializing to be at maximum productivity during job time.

The third was going from the rec area back to work. This lane was the chattiest.

Pink wanted to explode. All these gems, so rude! How dare they crowd upon her. She shuddered as someone stepped on her foot. She looked down, about to scream, when she saw the gem who had done so. She had a light green, almost gray hair. The green gem who had been talking suspiciously had had someone like that near her.

Immediately she started following the small gem. It wasn't a problem that she was heading to her room. Pink could just sneak inside.

The talc's barracks were on the edge of the settlement, where all the other talcs had their rooms situated.

It was cluttered and not well kept. The talcs were only there, really, to be mailers and cleaners. Not many gems were high up enough to own electrical correspondence computers, or email, as the tech was not currently easily reproducible. Hence the need for mailers. Talcs were also used to clean up after gems in their offices and barracks.

Those jobs usually meant they wouldn't have been in the traffic, but would've instead stayed behind so they could clean up, and then leave. This seemed like a talc who had places to be, an actual job. She was on the same schedule as everyone else. This only furthered Pink's curiosity.

The talc opened the door to the barracks, and pink swiftly shapeshifted to her small winged shape so she could spy.

They walked down a long hallway, the lighting dingy and slightly green-tinted. A loud couple, already deep in a make out session, was filling the otherwise creepily silent hallway. They eventually made it to her door. It was simply marked DIPPER-666. That series of talcs was soapstone. However since there was more of them than any other talc, they just called them talcs.

The talc finally stopped, and unlocked the door. The outside room was sparse, containing only a table with 4 chairs and a short range wailing stone.

Pinks eyebrows shot up in surprise. Those were only given to average gems who had to be alerted quickly to a emergency.

Pink realized, suddenly, what made this talc so special. She was a mortician. She had actually signed the form for it 40 years or so ago.

Occasionally, if there was a shortage of the usual wanted gem for a job, a talc could easily be trained to do the job. It was a quick solution and usually didn't last, as talcs, as always, shatter easily Even though they were the 4th discovered type of gem by the Diamond Authority, (happening 995,675 years ago) , the oldest one alive was only about 39,000 years old, and was only alive that long because Blue was currently using her for an experiment to study longevity.

It was like that had happened with the mortician, who was actually examining the last smashed gem (a brawl between a Smoky and a Jasper had ended in a bad end for the Jasper) when she got crushed by the same Jasper.

Pink smiled to herself. All she had to do was find the other people of the rebellion, and then she could imprison them, starting with this stupid talc.

Talcs weren't very good for mirrors, or for anything, actually. Perhaps she'd better just crush her and throw her in with some injector fluid, instead. It's what they did with dead gems anyway.

It was then Pink got a good look at her enemy. Her gem was centerlined, but was awkwardly placed between her lips and her nose. The skin of her projection was a light blue reminiscent of Pearls, and her hair was light and bouncy.

Pink settled into a corner of the floor, and was glad she had brought a book. It was going to be a bit boring.

* * *

7 hours and 45 minutes later, it was rec time. The talc finished her book, and so had Pink. They left the dingy quarters and went into the crowd.

The talc deftly slipped through the crowd as several of her brethren got poofed.

Pink was slightly impressed. This talc was not as stupid as her sisters typically were. Most of the time, they didn't even care what happened to them.

They made it to the rec area, a place Pink remembered as once being a rare and beautiful meadow, one of the few naturally solid spots in the planet. There was only about 25 of them, and it saddened her that they had used one for a party ground.

The talc made it to a inconspicuous corner, slightly hidden by a few trees and some vines, a nice place to hold a secret meeting. No one else was there yet. Perfect.

Pink quietly transformed into her Quartzy impersonation form. She stepped out of the shadows, quietly, behind the Talc. She grasped her by the shoulders, as hard as you can for a talc, turned her around and said, "What are you doing here?"

The talc looked at Pink, assessing her situation. There was no gem that pink that was under a moh's of 5 in the Colony, so she was definitely no way she could just wiggle out of her grasp. Pink could almost see the wheels churning in the talc's head.

"I'm... Just meeting with my friends"

"But what for?"

"We always meet here. It's quiet and secluded"

"Why do you need to have such a quiet place?"

This stumped the talc a bit. She knew that there was no way she'd get out of this alive, whether or not she answered all the questions. So she decided to stay loyal to her mysterious friends.

In a swift moment that surprised Pink, a tube flashed and fell out of the talc's gem and went in her mouth. Immediately, she shot a dart at Pink, and it stuck in the middle of her forehead. She could feel the poofing toxin seeping through her projection, to her gem, but it wouldn't be able to affect a Diamond. She laughed and pulled the dart out. The talc gaped.

"Nice try, weak one. Who is part of your group? You've amused me, and I might let you go if you answer me quickly and truthfully."

The talc stumbled over her words. "My poofing dart can affect anyone under a 8 mohs. And the only pink gem who is over a 7 here is Pink Diamond! Oh where is my friends!?"

Pink stiffened. She should of remembered that factoid. She had, after all, discovered talcs.

There was no use. The talc would recognize her now. So, she squeezed a little harder. Immediately, she poofed. Pink picked the gem up, and then dropped it. And then stepped on it.

BILL-666 was definitely dead.

Pink heard some voices.

"I hope Talc doesn't mind we were late. She's such a stickler for rules. "

"Well, considering that we are late, and that we make up 75% of the group, you'd understand why'd she be angry."

Pink swiftly transformed back into her small form as a large green hand swiped away the vines.

A large green gem stepped into the clearing. Almost as tall as Quartzy's projection, and with a gem nearly in the same spot (it was on the lower chest, on the centerline) with a belly-showing v-neck sweater with three quarter sleeves and stars on the shoulders and some shorts. She had round and black-green hair. "Talc? Where are you?"

"Maybe she got poofed in the rush. It has happened before, Jade" Said another gem. This one was a startling blue gem, with a poofy sleeved dark blue dress under a button on strap dress over top, which was lighter and had a greenish star in front. She oddly had 2 golden braids that went down her front, ruining her blue color scheme.

A third came in, with spiky yellow hair and a tank top with shorts. She looked around, and down, and then her face turned to one of horror. "Jade, don't step there!" she said, pointing towards the large green gem.

The jade looked down, at her foot. The talc's gem dust was underneath. The turquoise turned around and breathed in sharply. "Oh my gem!" This actions showed her gem, on her lower back.

The jade quickly stepped away. "Cymophane, we have to report this."

The cymophane laughed grimly. "So what? They'd say. She is- I mean was, a talc, Jade. There'll be a new talc out here, to the colony, before the day ends, her room will be refilled, and we're down to three. Simple as that."

The turquoise replied, "But there's a murderer on the loose. Shouldn't we at least report that? Maybe, at least, then they won't be so flippant about Talc's death."

The cymophane shook her head. "This was probably the work of some Milky or Smoky trying out their strength. They'll get shipped off and probably die anyway." She sounded defeated and depressed.

Pink realized this was a good sign. Morale was low. She knew their gem types and placements. All she had to do was look up their numbers, and then befriend them. She'd eventually get the information she wanted out of them, and then the rebellion would be solved!

Pink flew away, and landed at her own door step. Quartzy was inside, clicking away on Pink's email. She had given permission, but there was no need for her to be on there, what was she doing?

But Pink was in a generous mood, so she looked around, made sure no other gem was able to see her, and changed back to her new form. She knocked on the door.

She heard some scrambling inside, and then a fake-calm voice yell out, "Come in!"

Pink told Quartzy what had happened, and she seemed pleased. But when Pink dismissed her and told her there'd be a molybdenite (a sub-type of talc) to take her to her room, she caught Quartzy giving her the stink-eye. It was as if Pink had foiled a plan or something.

That gem gave her the weirdest feeling.

But anyway, she had stuff to do. There was only 10 jades on Mortmire. 6 of them were on the rec shift that the rebel was. 3 of them had the same gem placement. But only one had round hair that seemed to be composed of extremely tight curls that defied gravity. This one was WIRT-34. She worked as a injector inspector.

Pink looked up the turquoise next. There was only about 15 of them, but they were all on the same rec shift. 10 had the same lower back gem placement. 6 wore dresses. 3 had no shoes. Only one, however, had braids. This was MARCO-187. She was an actor.

Figuring out the Cymophane was easy. There was only 6, and only one with a gem in between her eyes, as Chrysoberyls like her were high moh's and generally needed on the battle field. However, she was an explorer, who found new worlds, currently on a well-deserved break because she had discovered Mortmire, the only suitable planet that Pink could use in a hundred years since Cloacina. She had saved the empire. She was CA-13

Pink cursed herself for not remembering.

Soon, it was the daily meeting.

Yellow talked about how she had won another battle. Blue said she had an improved serum for Pink, supposedly able to squeeze more gems out of Mortmire's remaining life force. White mentioned she'd be able to send a Pearl to Pink by next week.

"Really, I'm surprised we hadn't thought of sending you one before."

Pink decided to ignore the we, as if those three were a separate group from her. Instead, she told them all of the events that had transpired. They all agreed that this was good, but Pink should wait until after the Pearl got there to start befriending the rebels. That way they'd be more open, a bit less suspicious, and it would be easier to find out what they knew.

After saying the usual pleasantries, they bid goodnight. Pink laid back in her chair, smirking. One down, 3 to go.

Pink thought back to when she had developed the torture method. They had had to, because the bee venom literally allowed them to hypnotize gems into working for them. It was funny.

At least they had disobeyed only when hypnotized by the bees. These gems, never in the line of battle ever, had come to the decision to rebel by their own wills.

Even after a million years, life still surprised her sometimes. It made her smile.


	4. Eldritch Rubies

Eldritch

* * *

It was a new day. 'Time to stalk,' Pink thought with giggles. Quartzy gave her a weird look from the computer that she was dominating (Pink had lately been letting her mess around on there a lot). "Just a funny thought."

"Ah-huh."

Pink brushed the annoying gem from her thoughts. "Alright," she drew out the 'al'. " I need to find these gems. They won't be in the same space ... they'll probably act as inconspicuous as possible, but act as normally as they can also. They probably know about the talc's venom, so I need to prove I'm less than a 7 moh's. "

Quartzy called from her chair, "Why don't you fake a fight?"

"That's perfect! Where'd you come up with that idea?"

"My friends had a similar one, when the were trying to catch the attention of the Bees in my last battle. "She said, fake brightly. 'I hate it when she does that' Pink thought. 'It always ruins the moment.'

After a long pause, Pink said her farewells, and stepped out into traffic. She realized she's probably wouldn't be so noticeable if she didn't come out of the Diamond office. She'd have to set up a door somewhere.

Of course, the traffic was horrible. It seemed to get more so everyday. 'More like every period' as another gem stepped on her foot. She was used to personal space. Unfortunately, there was no plausible reason for her to summon her bubble, so she continued to suffer until she made it to the rec area.

First, locate the rebels.

Pink spent the next two and a half hours looking for the Cymophane, Jade, and Turquoise. She finally spotted the Cymophane's ridiculously spiky hair near the fountain. They were dressed in more somber colors, darker shades of their normal projections, and they were talking. It was a rising trend, to wear darker colors when mourning.

'Alright, time to start a fight.' Pink looked around. There was a zircon walking her way.

Pink pulled a book out of her gem discreetly, and, pretending to read, started wandering into the path of the zircon. They bumped into each other.

"Oh, uh, excuse me." The zircon said sweetly.

'Darn', Pink thought. Occasionally you got one of these. A large moh's, but very sweet. Must of not even killed a Bee yet. Not what she was looking for. "Sorry."

They stepped out of each other's way.

Now she was going to have to **wait** a little longer until another opportunity arose. She'd have to look weak, innocent, and of a lesser moh's quartz. Otherwise the rebels wouldn't trust her. She had even heard the turquoise say that they were found out, and so Pink Diamond had Talc was murdered. Too close to the truth.

She couldn't look like the aggressor either. That would also cause suspicion.

After an hour of pretending to read, the jade, turquoise, and cymophane set off towards the playhouse. This actually helped Pink a lot.

With the small crowd going there, there'd be many a gem to bump into. Besides, there was a new play. She'd been wanting to go.

The theatre was made of wood, and was painted a bright orange color, with flashing lights that said the new show's name. It was simply called, "The War".

Pink went in. She figured it wouldn't hurt if she watched the play first, and then got into a fight.

She got an orchestra level seat, because she got there relatively early and she showed her honorable discharged veteran papers (they were pretty easy to get).

She went in, and was smack dab in the middle of the middle row. It was sort of nice. While her private box was only used by her, it was sometimes hard to see and listen to what was going on in the plays she watched.

The Jade, Cymophane, and Turquoise all sat on the second balcony. Pink frowned. 'I guess maybe next time I should wait until they get here to sit down.'

After a few minutes, the play commenced. Pink could immediately tell that this was written by White, or one of her acolytes. It was pure propaganda.

A reddish chalcedony, whom Pink immediately recognized as a real veteran, was her, and an unusually large gypsum was Yellow.

The bees continually acted aggressive throughout the play, always insulting and never being nice. In truth, it had been Yellow's brash handling of their first meeting with the queen of that planet that caused their war. They actually had some nice qualities, such as they buried their dead, and they also had a love of nature, just like Pink.

It was set back in the days where Yellow and Pink worked together.

Back when they were just starting their empire, they had a first all ruled their subjects at the same time. However, Blue had soon decided to be at the technology forefront and proclaimed herself the Head Scientist. Then Pink officially started exploring and colonizing. While Yellow was clear-headed and able to command gems, she was bad at judging laws and such. So she created a new job for herself, and became law enforcement and later the head of the military. This meant, since new areas were dangerous, Yellow often traveled with Pink.

Anyway, Yellow, at the end of a long fight scene, 'righteously' slew the Queen of that planet. Then they found out that the queen was actually the daughter of an empress, and in killing her had incurred the wrath of the evil bee empire.

All together it was a good show, if you isn't know much about Bees.

She made sure she was ahead of the trio when she stepped into the path of a large stishovite, a gem of a moh's of 9-9.5. Perfect. She also looked pretty angry, because in the middle of the play her partner, an onyx, was asked to leave by a talc, apparently for her work. Pink had listened in. Apparently it was their first date in 11 months, and their busy schedules had allowed for this day, only.

Pink stepped on the foot of the Stishovite, and was sort of glad it wasn't the other way around. This gem looked like it had a ton of mass.

Thankfully, the Stishovite started their discourse aggressively. "Watch where you're going, you big twit!"

"Sorry. I wasn't looking" Pink replied with attitude. It only portrayed a fraction of her anger. She knew it was foolish to be angry about what the gem had said, because she had set it up so its she would do this, but she wasn't used to such language.

A crowd was drawing, though, the trio included. This encouraged her.

"Well maybe you should've! I'm walking here!"

"And I'm walking here! I was here first!"

This really angered the Stishovite. She punched Pink in the face. Pink let herself fly. It was the first time she had gotten punched since 30 millennia ago, when Yellow had visited and they had gotten in an argument.

As soon as she was about to land, she flipped and was standing on her feet. She ran towards the Stishovite and allowed her punch to be grabbed. The stishovite then punched near her belly, and said "That's it. I'm done." And stalked off, giving Pink the middle finger as Pink was bent over, pretending to be in far more pain then what she really was. That gem may have been only 0.5 moh's less hard than her, but she really did not have much arm strength. Her arms were oddly thin.

Funny enough, the Turquoise came running over. "Oh my gem, are you okay? Do you need to see Pink Diamond? What's your moh's? Did she hurt your gem" she said as her eyes flicked towards Pink's gem.

"I'm a 6.5. I'll be okay. I'm fine." Pink replied, her voice having a hint of groaning in her voice.

"Why don't you come with me and my friends, then? Just to make sure. Besides, I don't think we've met yet." She flashed a bright smile, and Pink found herself returning it. This gem was cheery, not annoyingly perky like Quartzy. It was refreshing.

They quickly rejoined the Jade and Cymophane. They had introductions, Pink finding out that the turquoise and jade were partners. Then the turquoise asked her her gem type (Rose Quartz), if she had a nickname (Pink quickly came up with Rose , as to not get mixed up with Quartzy. Besides, she liked the name. Seemed less ... curt than Pink), was she retired from service (yes) and what did she do now (I'm the new healer, as Pink Diamond is too busy).

The Jade finally broke in. "Are you here because of the murder?"

"Yes. Pink realized that she wasn't able to personally care for her subjects, so Yellow decided to retire me and make sure that something like that wouldn't happen again."

Cymophane spoke up. "I wish you had come sooner." Her face was downcast, lips barely moving.

The turquoise leaned over and quietly added, "The victim was our friend and her partner."

"Oh"

The Jade gave her a funny look. "You know, you call the Diamonds by their first names, as if you knew them.

Pink flushed angrily at herself, then decided to pass it off as embarrassment. "Sorry. Habit from the military."

"Really, I would've thought you'd be more formal." the Jade said, slightly suspicious. Still, this pushed Pink slowly closer to the edge.

"So when'd you arrive?" The Turquoise prudently changed the subject.

"Yesterday. As I am needed on duty all the time, it also sort of means I'm off duty all the time too. "

"Nice! Hey Rose, if you want, you can come hang with us. I mean, when you're not working. I'd love to hear about the battles you've been in. The play I'm working on, I have to play a rare Blue Quartz, back when the-"

Turquoise was cut off when an alarm sounded. That meant, for Pink at least, to head to her office-someone had been hurt. They still hadn't given her a short range wailing stone, so they had to rely on the horns.

"I have to go" Pink said apologetically. "But how about tomorrow? I can meet you by the water fountain."

"Sure. See you then."

"Goodbye" Pink started speeding towards the office.

It turned out that Pink's ruby guard had gotten antagonized by three amentrines. This had resulted in one shattering and two cracked gems. She healed the cracked ones, but was of course unable to do so with the shattered gem.

She then switched with Quartzy, and listened to their stories while they told the chief of police. The Amentrines, of course, lied, claiming that the Ruby had just started laying in on them.

The Ruby, however, knew whom she was speaking to, and that Pink was probably listening, so she told the truth. She hadn't fought for a while, had gotten in an argument with the topaz guard, and then three young amentrines had decided to antagonize her for no apparent.

The police chief was just for show, really. With such a big problem, it was Pink's job to judge it and decide their sentences.

Pink hated these predicaments. By law, you could not punish a soldier, only send them to the front lines at the most.

Unfortunately, quartzes were unusually bloodthirsty and liked those sort of odds.

Rubies were known for their fiery tempers. But this one had only gotten in only 2000 fights her whole 1000 years working for Pink. She had only melted through the floor three times, and had only once cracked a gem, before. This one had extreme self-control.

So she decided to do the best she could.

The chief, the Onyx from earlier actually, came out of the interrogation room and sighed. "What's your verdict, sir?"

"I would like to speak to them personally, actually. Please bring me the amentrines first.

The chief paled. The onyx knew that if you were alone with a Diamond and there was a problem, you'd better hope it wasn't you.

The Jaspers were led into the inspection room again, the Ruby flipping them off as she left. They were smirking when Pink came in. They still were when she sat down. They obviously either didn't know the extent of their problem, didn't know who she was, or both.

So she decided to set them straight.

"Hello, I am Pink Diamond. " Their grins slipped a bit. "So, usually, you'd be getting off without a punishment. But this is a special case. That Ruby? Even though she is a Ruby, she's never killed anyone before. She has the most restraint I've ever seen on a centerlined pyrokinetic. But now I have to punish her. "

The Jaspers were sitting still. "Once a centerlined Ruby had their first gem kill, they get even worse than you idiots. Blue hasn't found out the reason why, but centerlines have always been like that. The asymmetricals are different for some reason. Anyway, I'm going to have to demote her quite a bit. Possibly to a Containment guard under White's jurisdiction." The Jaspers started paling. That was a really bad punishment for someone who likes fighting. Only weak asymmetricals to bully there.

"She worked really hard to reach the honored position as a Diamond guard. I've trusted her for years. And that's what I'm going to do with someone I , officially, I can't touch you guys. But I'm going to have my daily talk with the Diamonds in an hour. And I'm sure I can persuade them to bend the rules a bit. Any suggestions to your punishment?"

The room was silent. The whole office was. Pink was pretty sure everyone was listening in. She was going to have to put on a show.

"No? Well, okay. Perhaps, I could just keep you here. Never send you to battle. Or maybe, I make you become magical items. You," she said, pointing to the amentrine with her gem on her chest. "Would make a lovely mirror. And you," she said, pointing to the other one, gem on her midback, "could make a good wailing stone."

The Jaspers were (trying to) discreetly remove their handcuffs. Pink threw the table between them on the wall, and pulled them closer to her. "I could have you corrupted. I could powder you, and not even stick you into an injector. Never to become part of a gem again. I could send you to Blue for her to experiment on. She doesn't have enough centerlines. I could stick you in the bog, never to be found, suffocating in the muck forever. I could abandon you each on two lonely moons, alone forever. I can do many things. SO STOP FIDGETING, for your sakes!" At this last command, Pink's hands struck out and grabbed both of them by their gems (she had to shapeshift a little to grab the second amentrine's) and pulled them, until they poofed. She gently put the gems on the floor.

She stalked out, a clearly terrified chief watching her as she went by. "If they reform back soon, don't allow them to leave.

She ran over to her office. She shooed Quartzy out, and was just in time for the other Diamonds to call in.

After news of scientific discoveries and battles and the possibility of enlistment (it was a new concept, White only inventing it that morning) to increase soldier amount, it was her turn. She told them of the good news, and after a small amount of jubilation, she told them of the bad news.

"Can we please punish them?" She ended, looking at White and Yellow. Yellow needed soldiers. White was all about laws. Surprisingly, though, they said yes.

"Okay, well, what should we do with them? I honestly can't decide." White said, slightly flippant.

"I wouldn't mind having them for an experiment. Those containment units aren't sending that many who won't cooperate anymore. Seems they've given up on escaping or something." Blue said, as she played with her moon goddess figurine on her desk. She had been unable to join the others for this message.

"Maybe I could give them as practice targets for my new recruits, especially those who've enlisted? They may need practice on a moving target." Yellow offered.

"Maybe we could put them on imperial broadcast, where everyone can see them. We make them fight each other, and promise the winner that the loser will be crushed, using them as an example. Then I keep the winner on Mortmire, leaving them here when I'm done with this planet and using them as an example on why you shouldn't break rules. It might even help my other problem" Pink said. She really liked this idea, but she had a feeling White was going to come up with something better.

White sat and considered these options for a while, and then compromised them into a master plan. Pink could see the ideas running across her mind.

"We could do this," White started. "We declare an imperial holiday, where everyone must watch their local wailing stones and mirrors for a 30 - day period an hour a day. It'll play each rec period.

It would start off with the fight between the two amentrines. The rules would be explained to them, and there was this: whoever gets cracked first loses, and the winner gets to live. The loser will receive no medical help.

Blue will get the cracked jasper, a needed variable part of an experiment she had been thinking of. The winner will then be tortured on live television. Everyone, including containment Units, will have to watch it.

When the Jasper finally goes crazy, Yellow will then get her target practice subject. And then I will do a speech on how this punishment was because two soldiers tried to cheat the law and disobey the rules. It'll be a message to all."

"That is a great plan! " Yellow bellowed, hugging her sister.

"Let's start it tomorrow." Pink suggested, and it was agreed upon.

White informed Pink that she's be getting her Pearl the day after tomorrow, instead of next week, and with that note they all said their goodbyes.

Pink immediately went back to the police office to talk with the Ruby.

The Ruby was acting, unfortunately, like most Rubies. Which meant unlike her normal self.

Her fingers were steaming and tapping, not still at all. A talc, a messenger, passed by, accidentally touching the ruby's hair, and she overreacted. She reached over her head, grabbed the talc, and crushed its throat with one finger. "I quite like that," she said to herself, not knowing that Pink was listening from around the corner.

Pink walked in. "Ruby JB-7, I have some good news and some bad news for you." The ruby's head turned. "Bad news is, your going to be demoted to Containment Unit guard. "

The ruby's eyebrows shot up so high Pink could swear they jumped of her face. "But no REAL gem over a 8.5 works there!" Her handcuffed hands banged the table as she emphasized 'real', the metal starting to melt slightly.

"I'm setting you up on a fast track. You'll be promoted so fast you'll probably be able to get out of that place soon, if you wanted." Though Pink severely doubted it. The gems in there were easy to terrorize, and Rubies like to horrify, petrify, alarm, and whatever else was a synonym to terrify. Once in, she'd probably stay.

"Also, one of the Jaspers will be cracked and the other will be tortured. You'll have your revenge after all, especially since it's going to be broadcasted all over the empire. "

The Ruby was mollified and grinned at the news. It was unnerving. There was no trace of her previous somewhat restrained self.

This was a new creature.

A monster.

* * *

Hey guys! So this is sort of a two parter, but it's not going to be called about this awful cliffhanger, but if I had kept on going this would've taken up to 5 weeks of writing, and by then it just wouldn't be worth it.

Thank you all for plowing through the first chapter,still had a small remnant if hope after the second, and tried out the third. Please remember that I will be forever thankful of the favorites, follows, and reviews (criticism or not) that you guys give me.

Have a good week! Or two. My writing schedule is funny. :)

1 chapter's date: October 21, 2015

2 chapter's date: October 26, 2015

3 chapter's date: November 6, 2015

4 chapter's date: November 16, 2015


	5. Extension

**Warning: While gems do not have blood to shed, this has some morbidity in it.**

* * *

It was the day of the fight. Pink had taken some time off and explained the rules of the event. A whole crew of talcs were holding mirrors from all directions towards the cage.

Pink turned towards the amentrines herself.

Summon your weapons!" She said as regally as she could. 'White could of done this better.' She thought to herself.

The one with her gem on her back summoned a club, normal for an amentrine. But the other one, with her gem on her chest, did nothing.

"I said take out your weapons. That applies to you too.""But I'm already wearing my weapon. I don't have to pull it out of my gem." The amentrine grinned.

"Pink was unsettled by the smile, but kept her emotions to herself. "Very well. And the fight...begins...NOW!"

Immediately, the amentrine with the back gem charged forward. The other amentrine moved out of the way, and aimed a mighty kick at the spinning mass of fury.

Right before her foot made impact, Pink saw two things. Firstly, the gem of the offensive amentrine was coming up towards the foot. Secondly, the back gemmed amentrine had a slot in her shoe.

This severely derailed the spinning amentrine, and sent her spinning from the front of the cage.

By the time the spinning gem reached the far end of the cage, she was glitching. Her club was held by a hand on her butt, her pants on her head. Her head appeared as though it was melting, and her fingers were shocking in and out of existence. In short, it was horrifying.

The apparently victorious amentrine started shouting her own name, UIS-1920. The audience quickly picked it up, as it was made mostly of quartzes. Thousands of voices screamed her name, as two talcs quietly snuck into the back of the cage and poofed the glitching gem, sticking the gem into a box that was to be warped to Blue's laboratory.

After several long minutes of deafening cries of admiration, Pink took out her wailing stone and shouted "Silence!" into it. Everyone immedietly obeyed.

A reporter, a tall, slim sylvite borrowed from Homeworld turned towards the prideful amentrine. "UIS-1920, as victor of this rather short fight, tell us how you won it."

The amentrine didn't even look at the sylvite as she spoke. "I have a shoe blade coated in poison. I kicked her in the gem. The end.

The sylvite frowned at the uncooperative victor, but quickly replaced it with a huge, forced smile. Pink couldn't blame her for that. "Oh. So what is your prize?"

Pink stepped up to the Sylvite. "She will not be rewarded for her behavior. She crossed the Empire, and a loyal and innocent gem, and so she will be tortured."

Loud whispers went through the crowd. Most of them did not know the concept, so she explained. By the time she was finished, it was silent.

"We have also heard whispers of a group wishing to bring change to the government. That would be treason. Because no more gems should die, the Diamond Authority will let them be as long as they do not take action. If they do, there will be immediate crushings."

Another bout of loud whispers. "Everyday, until that gem," she pointed towards the terrified Amentrine, "goes crazy, you will all have to watch an hour of her torture during your recreation time. To conclude this event, The Diamond Authority would like to say this: Please follow the rules. Or else you'll face punishment. Thank you and please head to your regularly scheduled periods."

Pink stepped away from the clearly shocked Sylvite. The crowd parted for her, clearly afraid as she walked calmly to her house. Quartzy was in there when she walked in."Hey, you done already? Who won? I did a bet with a Zircon and I'm hoping that the one with the back gem won."

"Nope."

"Darn. I owe that gem a vial of my tears, then. Do you know how hard it is to cry a whole bottle of tears?"

"Uhhh... No. Did you send the Ruby away yet?"

"Yes. Aren't you supposed to be out there, watching the rebels?"

"Yes." With that, they switched and then she walked out her new secret exit. By the time Pink reached the fountain, the crowd had already dispersed. Jade was sparring with Cymophane, looking as though they had been doing it for a while and wern't going to stop anytime soon. Turquoise was sitting facing inward, her feet kicking up the water as she stared glumly at nothing. Pink decided to go with the safer option. She sat next to Turquoise. She saw that her eyes were watering. "It's ok, you can cry."

Turquoise let out a sob, and leaned into Pink. She started getting her, or rather Quartzy's, dress mind shorted out for a moment. She had meant it was okay for Turquoise to cry, but not that she could cry on her. Especially not on her. She could have Turquoise locked away for centuries if she was Pink Diamond right then. But she was not. She was Rose Quartz.

So Pink forced herself into the rebel's situation. She had just lost a close friend, her beliefs were being oppressed, and from the way Jade deliberately tried not to look their way, she couldn't rely on her partner as someone to lean on right then. Pretty heavy stuff.

'I actually feel sorry for her' she realized. Weirdly caring enough to want to know more, Pink asked the tearful turquoise "What is the matter?"

"Oh nothing. I mean, it's not like one of my best friends is dead, Jade is fighting out her anger instead of just talking to me, and the Diamond Authority just started torturing gems, gems who were basically loyal to the government. I wish I could just... change it!" She finished angrily. This earned a quick glance from Jade, but she was too busy working her problems with someone else to look long.

Even more sympathy washed over her. She knew what it felt like. To see people you're close with exclude you. It happened to her everyday, and it especially hurt when the other Diamonds had time to warp to each other. So Pink pulled Turquoise closer.

'Maybe I'll let this play along a little longer.' She thought as she started rubbing the Turquoise's back.

It had been a long time since Pink had felt anything like this, and she wasn't about to let it go.

* * *

 **Hey People!**

 **Thank you so much for reading this! Sorry this chapter was so short. The next chapter is a lot more exciting, (in a way) and will definetly be longer. You have my word. :)**

 **Anyway, I would just like to say, i am thankful for you people reading this. I am thankful for all of the past, future, and present readers, and of course, Cavedwellers. Please remember to check out United I Stand. It will be updated soon, by next month I believe. Also read her other stories. They are really cute.**

 **u/1208113/CaveDwellers**

 **Anyways, please review, critique, and suggest gemsonas to me. I am planning on having 9 gems, albeit briefly mentioned, who will... I'm sorry, I cannot continue or else I will ruin my story. :p :)**

 **But please include placement, type, moh's and color, if multi-colored. Extra details are appreciated, but they cannot be a fusion like Garnet, nor can they have any relationship with the canon characters or Jade, Cymophane and Turquoise.**

 **Have a good week (or two)!**

 _ **P.S. Guest who commented on October 21, I can still do your idea if you change her up a bit. Tiger Eye is, unfortunetly, a Quartz, which cannot be part of what I am planning.**_


	6. Pearl

After letting Turquoise cry on her yesterday, they took a walk, the blue gem telling her all about her new role in the next play. Pink promised to go, and the Turquoise gave her a huge smile.

After the walk, the Jade came up to the Turquoise, one hand scratching her head, her face looking down sheepishly, saying she was sorry. Turquoise accepted, and then the Bell had rung.

They talked as they scurried with the crowd, agreeing to meet at the fountain again two hours after rec period began. They had something they had to do.

Pink took Jade and Turquoise to their respective jobs, and then Cymophane to her suite. It was a somewhat fancy place, with pillars and long glass windows. And then she got a message through her wailing stone.

"Rose Quartz, we have an emergency. A pearl had just arrived when a Milky Quartz decided to take it for herself. This wouldn't be a problem, usually, but this one belongs to Pink Diamond, so... yeah. Anyway, the Pearl got cracked in the process and we need your help. We are by the west side of the barracks"

"I'm on my way!" She replied, running as soon as she heard the scene of the crime. She had totally forgotten about getting her pearl today. When she went out with the rebels, she had a lot of fun, just hanging out like the normal gem she always sort of wanted to be.

She was soon there. A small crowd, mostly consisting of quartzes, were gathered around. The onyx sheriff was already filing out the request form for sending the milky quartz to the front lines.

And then she saw her pearl, glitching pitifully. Holograms were shooting all over the place. Her hands had been moved to her ears, her eyes to where her feet should be. Her feet were on her stomach, making her walk around pitifully as her attempts at speech were garbled. This is why Pink loved her power. She got to fix things like this.

She quickly shed some tears for the poor gem. The cracks magically healed, and a light flashed as the gem was fixed.

Standing before her was the prettiest Pearl she had ever seen. She had a long, cutely pointed nose, with eyes that interestingly seemed to have no pupil. Her hair was a sort of coral pink, and her skin a graceful blue. Her limbs were long but delicate, unusually so even by Pearl standards.

Pink could see why it had taken so long for her to get a pearl. Someone had seen to it that she had definitely gotten the best one.

The Pearl finally focused its gaze, and curtsied to everyone. "Hello," she said in a oddly monotonous voice. "I am Pearl YTLAS-71334. Thank you for the healing. Where is my liege." She didn't even heighten its voice at the end of a question.

Pink nearly stepped up and claimed the Pearl, but then she realized that she still was in Rose Quartz form, and that it would look suspicious if she did so. Instead, she compromised. "Hello, I am Rose Quartz, but you may call me Rose. I can take you to Pink Diamond."

The Onyx looked relieved. Pink knew she was a brave an honorable gem, but that Onyx was deathly afraid of the Diamonds. Pink had no idea why. "Thank you. I'll send a report later. "

The Pearl had joined her, and they set off walking. The barracks were coincidentally on the other side of the colony, so Pink got to show the Pearl everything there.

When they reached her office, she asked the Pearl to stand outside it as she 'alerted Pink Diamond'. Bursting in, she found Quartzy laughing so hard she had doubled over. On screen was Yellow Diamond, grinning so wide it looked as though it hurt.

Yellow looked at her. "Hey. This is official business that we are on. GET OUT." Yellow brushed her off. Pink started seeing Red. 'How dare she?!'

Pink Diamond shifted back to herself, internally exploding with anger. "So now you can't even tell us apart, is that it Yellow? Even though she is literally in her normal projection right now!?" She turned to Quartzy. "And you! What arei you doing? You only communicate with the Diamonds with me present! What in the world are you doing?"

Quartzy kept out of Pink's chair, practically groveling at her feet. "I am sorry, my dear Pink." Yellow looked ashamed. "I was not aware. I had thought that was you. We can replace her, and then crush her if you wish. " Yellow crossed hands at her waist and hooked her thumbs together discreetly, a secret gesture that showed respect, only known between the Diamonds. Pink could tell that Yellow was deeply sorry, and also very angry. She pitied the next gem to walk in Yellow's room.

Pink secretly made the gesture back, smiling. She looked down at Quartzy, who was looking up at her. "I'm in a merciful mood. I'll break this one's projection and we can all talk about it at midnight. Only us Diamonds, mind. " She said as she brought her foot down on Quartzy's neck. The foolish quartz's eyes grew comically bigger as she pressed harder, until the lower moh's gem poofed. "I'll set her up with her own email later."

Yellow relievedly dipped her head, and they said their goodbyes.

'Now for the Pearl.' She grabbed Quartzy's gem and placed it in her secret pocket. "And don't you come out until I tell you" she said, shaking her finger foolishly towards the unresponsive rock. She then went to open the door. The Pearl was still standing there, polite smile upon her face.

"Hello, I am Pink Diamond. Come in." Pink gestured inside. They sat down, Pink at her desk and the Pearl in a chair pulled up to the desk. "As you are my Pearl, you will be an organizer of my documents, and will help me with presentations. You will also be the messenger between the Rose Quartz you just met and I. You will have 6 hours of free time, and two to be in your room. Now, at the recreation period of the Rose Quartz gem, you will have your free time and such. You may begin."

The Pearl set upon the messy papers as if they were her mortal enemy. By the time the first hour was done, there were thirty-six nearly labeled stacks of paper, and the contents of her drawers had been rearranged so that she could find anything easily. This Pearl was amazing.

'Not only aesthetically pleasing, but orderly too.' Pink thought to herself.

The Pearl next went into her filing closet and shut the door. After about 15 and a half hours, and after the midnight meeting, Pink took out the quartz and set her on the floor, granting her permission to come out. The air filled with magic, and out came Quartzy, a cowed expression upon her face.

"Your Highness" she stuttered, bowing deeply. So deeply her nose thumped the ground. It made Pink laugh.

"Hello Quartzy. I am sorry for that outburst earlier. It was embarrassing to be mistaken for you, is all. It would be as if you were mistaken for a Fluorite." Pink smiled down at the gem. "So, I have some rules for you. You will follow them, or else" here Pink made a punching motion at her own gem "there'll be repercussions."

The rose quartz issued a small, quick dip of the head. She continued on. "You will have your own email. You will not speak with the other Diamonds unless you are specifically told to. You will find a replacement for the Ruby as a guard partner of the Topaz. You will avoid the rebels at all costs. Do I make myself clear?"

Another dip of the head. They created the email, without a manual password, because it was easier to protect.

"Now, I'm going out, so let's switch and you may continue signing my papers. Oh, and so is my Pearl."

They quickly changed forms, Pink slipping back into the shorter form with ease. It was starting to feel more comfortable than her own projection.

The bell for changing periods rang. The Pearl came out of the closet, and bowed so deeply to the fake Pink Diamond she had her whole face seemingly in the ground. 'She sure is limber' though Pink appreciatively.

Quartzy dismissed the Pearl. The Pearl then walked out of the room at the same time as Pink. As she was walking out, she saw her glare at her. Something was not right with that gem. Very sneaky, probably the type to talk behind your back.

The Pearl bowed, after they made it outside, not as deeply but enough so the the tip of her nose pushed slightly against he floor. "Would the honorable Rose Quartz take me to my quarters. I am sorry but I do not remember where they are."

"Sure. And you can just call me Rose."

"Thank you." They walked down the main street, the Pearl getting many looks as she came by. There was even a small amount of space around her, something the crowd never did for anyone. Pink guessed it was because she was so rare and different from everybody.

They eventually made it to the Pearl's barracks. It was a miscellaneous barracks, full of gems that were unique in the colony. For example, there was only one hauyne here, as there was few computers for it to fix and they usually served Blue. Pink realized that it was where she technically had a room. She wondered which one was hers.

They went inside, where the Pearl asked the receptionist (a talc) where her room was. It was in the basement. They went downstairs, the uncomfortable silence growing in between them.

Pink remembered when she had discovered Pearls. They were on Ran, on a salt farm (sea salt is an essential ingredient of artificial injector fluid) when a worker had accidentally let a tank full of injector fluid fall into the ocean. They tried to recover as much as possible, but some was lost.

So, about 300 years later, Pink was taking a swimming break from her endless supply of paperwork, when she saw movement, from a shape that was clearly not an aquatic plant she'd seen before. Diving deeply, she then saw a strange creature.

It had a torso such as hers, but from waist down it was different. It had a leg that ended in an extremely flat foot. So flat she could see straight through. And near the odd creature was a huge clam, easily three times the size of Pink's current projection.

She had grabbed the odd creature, and brought it to the surface, where she sent it to Blue. Blue eventually concluded it was a gem.

The thing was, that Pearl was extremely noisy. It didn't know how to speak straight away, but even before that it liked to be heard and acknowledged. This gem was quiet, well-mannered, and didn't... have a personality.

The Pearl turned down a thin, poorly lighted hallway. The smell was vile. It was even worse than the talc barracks. Pink guessed it was because the miscellaneous had no talc cleaning service.

They made it, after several turns, to a bare white room. The Pearl turned around. "Thank you for escorting me here. May I please have my rest time." She said, the dead tone in her voice.

Pink agreed, but secretly planned to sneak back later. Her friends wouldn't meet her until two hours have passed, and even though she knew they were talking about their plans, this was too tempting an idea. She wanted to observe the Pearl. It wasn't right in the mind.

She left, but as soon as the door closed she turned into her small form and slipped under.

The Pearl was sitting on the floor, legs crossed into a knot, feet facing up. Her eyes were closed. She then began chanting.

"You are an object." She started with. "You are worth only a small amount. You came from a mistake. You must make up for your existence by serving faithfully. Your liege's word is law. You must let them do what they will with you."

As the pitiful gem was chanting these words over an over again, like a mantra, holograms started to shine out of her gem.

The first showed a gem, probably a spinel, reaching down and giving her paper, twigs, and dirt. She was then told, by an oddly deep voice, to stick it in your mouth and get it out the other end. She did as she was asked. In the background you could hear other voices, giggling.

The second hologram seemed older, somehow. It showed a large gypsum, who told her to shapeshift into a tree. She wasn't allowed to move. She also had to have extremely thin roots to hold herself up on. She stayed that way, in an uncomfortable form, for well over ten millennia.

The last memory was the worst. It showed an unidentifiable gem making her kiss her with passion. It was sickening.

But then came the worst memory. She saw the Pearl being projected for the first time in a lab. As soon as she learned how to speak, she was taught this mantra. And as soon as she had mastered that, they put the poor Pearl through a graduation ritual.

They tied her down, and they programmed a chip right in front of her. A chip to make her perfect. The perfect slave.

They carefully drilled the chip through the back of her head, until, they reached the back of the gem. The implanters kept on commenting on how interesting it was to do this on a live gem. Pink realized, with a sickening feeling, they did not see the Pearl as a person. And that she herself thought that about a lot of gems.

They then carefully screwed in the chip. The pearl's screams soon subsided, replaced by even breathing and a polite smile.

Pink had heard of this, but hadn't really believed it. And she also hadn't cared enough to find out. But she hadn't thought it would be so painful and horrid. It made her feel awful.

It brought her memories of finding the torture method. Back then, she somehow hadn't cared. But ever since spending time as a normal gem, she was starting to feel bad about it. Regretful.

'I wonder if all Pearls are timid like this now.' While it had been annoying at the time how loud pearls were when she first kindergartened them, the perfection of this one bothered her.

She had to change this. Ultimately, her job was to heal and make gemkind better and stronger. So, she quietly poofed Pearl. She didn't even make any extra sound, just broke off in the middle of the word mistake, like a video or something.

Pink used some of her own matter to create surgical tools. She carefully unscrewed the chip out of the gem, and placed it gently to the side.

She wasn't sure to leave the gem to regenerate on her own or not. She also knew that the lower your moh's was, the slower you preferred to come back. They always took into account where they got poofed from, to strengthen their new forms there. But that also meant less matter for other places, so it definetly, if they were smart, took a good amount of time to consider.

Figuring that it would take a while, she wrote a note on the wall, saying that the Rose Quartz found her like this, and that she is allowed as long as she needs to reform herself, signing it as Pink Diamond.

Done with that, Pink realize it was nearly time for her to meet her friends.

They met by the fountain. Cymophane asked her why she was called away, and Pink explained the situation. They spent the whole day walking, talking, and singing. They weren't too familiar with the concept, but Pink soon taught them the basics, such as do, ray, me and so on. All in all, even if it had started out a bit stressful, the last 24 hours weren't so bad.

Line break

As the days, months, and then 40 years passed by, nothing really changed from what happened that day. There was usually at least one emergency, and then some paperwork, spending two hours watching Pearl, and ten hanging out her friends. The days always wrapped up with a talk with her sisters, and Pink was pretty content.

'Well, almost' She thought. Pearl was improving. She and Pink could hold a conversation for a few minutes before the training would kick in, but it was taking longer and longer each day. Quartzy ruled fairly, and always got paperwork in on time, but she was acting polite, in an almost rude sort of way. Like she was mocking Pink, somehow. She also scared Pearl. She wasn't sure how, though.

And as she got closer to the rebels, her friends, she got farther from her sisters. The only thing they really shared these days were tempers, and hers was slipping a bit. Her sisters didn't appreciate natural beauty. They were only concerned with the here and now, and with winning the war. They never were able to find the balance.

Pink had always felt the part of being the youngest sister, but never so strongly before.

So maybe she wasn't very content with the way things were going all the time. But no one could say Pink didn't have it good.

* * *

 **Hey guys! How are you? I'm EXTREMELY sorry for the delay. The time got away from me and I'll try not to let it happen again. From now on, I'm going to try and update every other Monday, at the latest.**

 **Anyways, thank you all for continuing to read this. Please review and tell me what I need to work on, and what went well. I'm sort of feeling that my stories are sort of dry. Should I add more dialogue and humor? Should I start playing up some RosexPearl? Remember, I'm writing this for you guys! :)**

 **Have a good week! (And please send your OC ideas!)**


	7. Don't Read if Bad Mood

Hello, person who cares and is not in a bad mood!

I am every sorry to say, I am ending this. It is honestly to hard to work around all this Steven Universe new stuff, though I congratulate the people who are able to.

Thank you all for reading, and I hope you live happily.

Sincerily, Fulgurite

Ps just in case you like Captain America or Batman, I have written stories with them and am considering continuing them. Captain America will definetly get one more chapter, at least.

If you would at least like to read the outline that I was going to do, just pm me and it will be my actual last chapter


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